JOURNAL ENTRIES
Friday 18th March
One of the compulsory units for final year students doing a Life and Social Science degree is Literature/Media Project A. The aim of this unit is to extend skills acquired during the 3 years of studying and applying it either in a work experience of choice or an independently developed project. I chose to do the project component as it would give me a degree of control over what I want to do. It was pretty obvious to myself what my project would be. As I’m starting out my freelance makeup business, after having just completed my diploma of Makeup Services last year, I thought combining the skills attained during university and my passion for makeup make for an interesting project.
My statement of intention was as follows:“I am currently completing my Bachelor of Arts, with a major in Media Communications, and a minor in Marketing and Italian. On the side, I am also starting off as a freelance makeup artist and it is something I am passionate about. I plan to organise a series of photoshoots to add to my portfolio. This would mean collaborating with photographers, models and hairdressers. In any industry it's about who you know, then what you know. This networking will hopefully benefit me in the future. To add to this, I also plan to blog about my experiences.
Since the due date is Friday 27th May, it gives me plenty of time to start organising times and put out casting calls for interested parties and get the ball rolling.
Monday 21st March
Today I put through a casting call on ModelMayhem. This is an online site where makeup artists, photographers, models, hairdressers, stylists, retouchers and more get together and collaborate on projects. So I put through a casting call for interested models who wanted some beauty shots for their portfolio. I explained that it was a Seasons Inspired Shoot (winter, autumn, spring and summer) and that whoever was interested MUST be reliable.
The problem with ModelMayhem are some of the models. Most of the models on the site either do it as a hobby, as a part time job and some are aspiring models. Many girls are promo girls. I have gone to shoots (organised by either the model or photographer) and the models have not shown up, nor did they extend the courtesy of letting everyone else involved know that they wouldn’t be able to make it to the shoot.
So I stressed the fact that whoever I choose for the shoot must be reliable, and show up on the assigned day.
Tuesday 29th March
I emailed my supervisor for this unit – Esther Milne. I wanted to know how to arrange a meeting with her to discuss my project and if my Statement of Intention met the requirements of the unit.
Wednesday 13th April
I met up with Esther today and she seemed really excited about the concept. She explained that this is exactly what the university wanted – for students to do a work experience or do a project that is in the field of what they wish to do after completing their university degree.
She was interested about how I was going to get models and photographers. I explained how ModelMayhem works and how most of the collaborations are free. Every single party involved puts in their time and expertise and everyone benefits from it afterwards. As a makeup artist, I get a model that will do the poses, and a photographer to shoot the photos. The model gets a makeup artist to do makeup for free and she gets prints for her portfolio. So in the end, everyone gets prints for their portfolio. That is the great thing about this website. However, a negative is that due to the amount of people willing to exchange services for free, charging for services is not always a viable option, since people would find someone else willing to do the same job for free – mostly students who want the work experience.
I also explained how I got into makeup, what I’ve done so far and where my interests lie in this industry i.e. Beauty, fashion, Special effects, Bridal.
Sunday 24th April
By this stage, I have gotten replies from about 30 models who responded to my casting call and were interested in the theme shoot. I am looking at 4 models who I think fit the profile.
I already have a photographer lined up. Sharon is someone I’ve worked with a few times, one on a grunge photoshoot and to date was one of the most enjoyable shoots I’ve done (this shoot can be viewed further down in my blog). I approached her and inquired as to whether she was interested in doing a free photoshoot and she was keen.
Tuesday 3rd May
I received an email from Rami through ModelMayhem. We’ve had a few classes at university together and have become mates. He told me he was an amateur photographer so I recommended he set up an account on ModelMayhem and start doing shoots to get photos for his portfolio.
So I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had seen my casting call and wanted to know whether or not I already had a photographer on board as he thought this would be a very interesting shoot. I already had Sharon lined up but decided to go with Rami instead for two reasons. Looking through his website, I noticed that he is a very talented photographer – especially for someone who says he’s an amateur and number two, it is just a lot easier to get in touch with him since we can meet up at uni.
Tuesday 10th May
I met up with Rami at the quaint little coffee joint just in front of Glenferrie Station. I brought along my laptop and showed his photo references of similar looks I was hoping to emulate. I also showed him photos of the four models that I wanted to work with (at this stage I haven’t yet contacted any of these models).
He was very excited about this shoot. We discussed times that he’d be free to do the shoot which I noted down in my diary. We also discussed studios since Rami does not have a studio of his own. He said he’d look and inquire with a few studios around and see which ones have the most affordable rates.
Tuesday 17th May
Rami emailed me rates of a few studios and to me they seemed way too pricey. One studio was charging $275 for use of their studio for 4 hours. Another one quoted $95 per hour, with a minimum of 2 hours. I’m actually not making too much money these days and could not justify spending this much for a project I’m organising for uni.
I contacted another photographer who I’ve worked with several times and her rates were a lot more affordable. For 8 hours, she was charging $180 and also let me know that she’d be more than happy to help out on my shoot for free if I needed her assistance (which I thought was very sweet).
To cover all bases I asked Rami to inquire about renting lights instead and using one of the rooms at my house as a studio. We have a lounge room that is quite large, lots of natural light filters through and white wall.
Thursday 19th May
Rami found a studio that charges $120 for use of their lights for a whole day. We both agreed this was the better choice. I can justify spending $120 for use of the lights for a whole day. Sometimes it’s so hard being short on funds lol.
Friday 20th May
The Media Project is due in next Friday and I still haven’t set a day to do the photoshoot, nor have I contacted the models yet. The main reason is for the past couple of weeks I’ve been saving enough money to buy some supplies needed for the shoot and the cost all adds up. I need materials, fake eyelashes, eye shadows, props etc and have been buying them off Ebay and I hope they all come in time for the shoot which definitely will happen next week.
Saturday 21st May
I knew Rami was free Wednesday after 10.30am so I contacted a model and asked her if she was free to do an all day shoot. She was my top pick of all the models. I have decided to just go with one model and get her to do all 4 looks. I think it’d be interesting to see the four different looks on the one model. Another reason is it’s a lot easier to organise a shoot with one model instead of trying to see whether all four models are able to come on the same day. Starting off with this project, I had originally planned to stagger the photoshoots and do a model per day, but after realising how much it costs to hire a studio, and only being able to afford lights for a day, I was left with the conclusion that one model is the best course to take.
What I liked about Ana Kingsley is that in every single photo she looks different. In some she looks very masculine, some feminine, some edgy. She has a lot of variety. What a lot of models struggle with is looking different in every photo. I think she’d be absolutely fantastic.
Monday 23rd May
I contacted Esther and asked if it was okay to hand in the hard copy of the prints next week. I’d be able to put up shots from the photoshoot on my blog by Friday but wanted more time to print out the photos, and give the photographer a bit more time to retouch the photos. Plus, I need to save up the money to print out the photos. It has already cost me about $500, excluding the cost of renting the lights, on the props and makeup. I ran out of makeup and needed to buy a whole supply of foundation and they don’t come cheap.
Rami contacted me tonight and asked if I’d be able to pick up the lights tomorrow since he doesn’t have a car. Since I am picking up the lights, I’m the one that has to pay for the lights. So I asked him to go halves on the $120 which he was happy to do. What he also explained in the email was that the company wanted a guarantee of $500 and I’d get back that money once the lights were returned.
$500!!! I had a heart attack reading that. I understood that I’d get the money back but my main concern was if anything happened to the lights, it’s my money being taken out of the bank, because I’m the one picking up the lights, and paying with it on my card. I had already spent more than $500 on supplies so I didn’t have too much left on my card.
Tuesday 24th May
I picked up the lights today. I said I’d pay $400 on my card and the rest in cash. So he asked one of the other guys working if it’d be okay to only charge me $400 for the guarantee as opposed to the $500 as stated in their policy. In his receipt, he wrote a note saying ‘She’s paying a deposit of $400 since she is a poor student’ which I found absolutely hilarious. That’s a $100 less that I could lose if anything happened to the lights, which I am going to make sure won’t.
Wednesday 25th May
What a wonderful day it has been!!
Ana arrived right on time at 9.00AM. We got straight into the first look. I started off with the summer look as it was the easiest to do. She had brought along her laptop which we connected to the TV and had ‘America’s Next Top Model’ playing in the background the whole day.
She is an absolutely lovely girl with a great personality. We had a ball watching the show whilst putting on her makeup. She had great skin which always makes the life of the makeup artist just that much easier.
Rami arrived at 10.45AM and proceeded to set up the lights. There were three main lights which took a while to set up.
I started working on her hair. I’m not a hairdresser or hair stylist and absolutely hate doing hair, which is the common consensus among most makeup artists. I will probably do a hair course in the future since it’s another set of skills that is useful and I’d be able to charge more for my services. But it is definitely something that I do not enjoy doing.
After finishing my first look, Rami proceeded to do a few test shots to get the lighting perfect and started shooting. He is such a talented photographer and all the photos looked amazing.
Ana is a chameleon. She had so many poses ready, needed no direction and kept firing out great poses one after the other. A lot of aspiring models struggle to find different poses but she was so amazing to watch. She knew her face and body perfectly and knew what suited each look.
I did different looks and hairstyles for each season and kept checking the time to make sure everything was on track. We had to return the lights before 5.30PM and if we didn’t make it in time, I’d be charged another $120.
For the autumn look, I glued on these skeleton leaves on the model’s neck. It was painful to watch her ripping off the glue as it pulls on the skin. Her skin got all red and I had to conceal the redness for the next look but eventually her skin cooled down and the redness went away.
My most favourite season of the shoot was winter. It was the most dramatic of all four looks and I used fake snow which just made the photos look great.
All in all, we stuck to the time, managed to complete all four looks by 4.30PM, and was able to return the lights by 5.30PM.
The three of us made a fantastic team and managed to pull everything off and the photos are going to look amazing. What a rewarding experience it has been!
SPRING
AUTUMN
WINTER
REFLECTION
For my Literature/Media Project A unit this semester, I decided to organise a photoshoot and blog about my experiences. As an aspiring makeup artist, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to demonstrated skills acquired from university and complement it with something that I am passionate about.
This was the first time that I have organised a photoshoot. Previous to this, I have always responded to a casting call arranged by either a photographer or model. The great thing about this shoot was I the fact I was in complete control of every aspect, from choosing the model and photographer and had creative license to do absolutely whatever makeup designed I wanted. I have done many shoots where I was not happy with the quality of photos taken, thereby making it useless for my portfolio, to models who struggled sell the look.
I am completely satisfied with the team I put together. Ana Kingsley is an aspiring model that hopes to make it big internationally, and hopes to be overseas next year doing what she loves. Rami Yahya is also an aspiring photographer but who already shows so much potential and talent that I had no doubt that he will do very well in this industry. All of our personalities complemented one another to make the shoot a success and I would work with either of them again in a heartbeat.
The original plan was to have four models, each one sporting a look of one season. Due to time constraints, I decided to do all four looks on the one model, and this turned out to be the right choice. Since I was only able to afford to hire photography lights for a day, having four models, with varying degrees of confidence with posing would have meant more time would have been needed during the shoot. Ana was such a professional which meant the photographer needed less time taking photos and getting the perfect shot.
What I have gotten out of this experience is that it is a lot harder to bring all the components of the shoot together than I had originally envisioned. Funding and having the money to buy makeup and supplies caused the shoot to take place a lot later than I wanted. Finding a time where both the photographer and model were free required quite a few emails back and forth and improved my organisational and time management skills.
One of my flaws is that I feel too relaxed during a shoot and take longer to apply makeup than is necessary. Knowing that we had time restrictions caused me to be more aware of time management and I am pleased to know that I can complete looks in a short amount of time without compromising the quality of workmanship.
Whilst I feel I have improved my organisational skills, it is still an area that needs more work. The shoot ended up taking place two days before I needed to submit the project. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money to purchase supplies any earlier and that was one of the reasons why the shoot took place later than I had planned.
I felt it was a very successful shoot and I am happy with how everything turned out. It has been an amazing experience, very rewarding and has validated my desire to stay in this industry.
